New Delhi: Retired IAS officer L. Khiangte, who resigned as Jharkhand Public Service Commission chairman amid allegations of irregularities, was arrested Monday after “incriminating evidence” emerged that the contract to conduct the 14th JPSC examination was awarded to a company in exchange for a bribe, officials said.
Khiangte also served as the state’s chief secretary until he retired in October 2024. He was appointed the JPSC chairman in February 2025. He was arrested by the Jharkhand Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Monday, even as students protesting in Ranchi for more than two weeks marched towards the assembly.
The students have been protesting against the alleged widespread irregularities within exam-conducting bodies such as the JPSC and the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC). They have been demanding cancellation of all examinations conducted by the TSR Data Processing Private Limited (TDPL), and a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities.
As they breached barricades and closed in on the Jharkhand Assembly premises, police used water cannons, lobbed tear gas shells, and lathi-charged them. The Assembly was adjourned for the day in the afternoon.
Khiangte, an IAS officer of the 1988 batch of the Jharkhand cadre, resigned as the JPSS chairman on 22 July, the day the CID registered a case to probe the allegations of malpractices in the JPSC examination.
The state agency had raided his residential and office premises in Ranchi. It has questioned him on at least on four occasions since.
“He has been arrested, and there is clear incriminating evidence suggesting demand of bribe from the company in question, TDPL,” a Jharkhand Police officer said Monday. He refused to share details of specific allegations against him.
Khiangte’s arrest comes a day after a Ranchi-based news portal claimed in a report that Khiangte and TDPL reached an agreement on a Rs 2-crore bribe and 20 percent of the overall billing amount.
“The matter is under investigation. The company was awarded a work order based on the terms and conditions which amount to offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act,” another officer said.
ThePrint had reported last week that the company TDPL was awarded an end-to-end contract for the 14th JPSC examination without even applying for the tender, and was instead nominated for the work.
Earlier last week, the state CID arrested a computer operator named Dharmender Kumar, who was working at Khiangte’s residential office. According to sources privy to the investigation, Kumar has been identified as the key link of communication between Khiangte and Abhay Kumar Tiwari, dubbed the mastermind of the JPSC examination scandal.
Posted as a Block Supply Officer in the state’s Godda district at the time of his arrest, Tiwari had qualified the JSSC CGL examination in September 2024.
Students protesting in Ranchi have also called upon the Hemant Soren-led government to cancel the examination and conduct a thorough probe against the alleged syndicate.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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